Fiday's Fritterings

Maybe the real economic stimulus is Mrs. Obama. According to NPR, J Crew sold out instantly of the sweater she wore on the first day at the G20. So here's the idea: have her represent one US retailer per month and have her visit the world, one month Under Armor, then the Gap, the Urban Outfitters, and so forth. She seems to be an economic stimulator on her own, no TARP, TALF, or TOM.

Until the brains running the economy of the country change the rules on short selling the American investor will continue getting screwed. Any time a company can buy up huge short positions in a company then downgrade it, the market for investors is broken. When hedge funds can control, inflating and deflating, commodities at will, the investor and consumer will be at the mercy the crooks on Wall Street. I maintain still that there are worse offenses going on at the banks and Wall Street than what Madof pulled off.

Please, please get the freaking ethanol out of my gasoline. My car runs with less power and gets less mileage with ethanol in it than without. How can burning more gas per mile be good for the environment, corn juice or not. Corn is for cornflakes and whiskey; get it out of my gasoline you bunch of idiots in the congress of Delaware.

If AIG and the federal governments would reduce wages on a graduated basis, say 5 percent then 8 then 10, depending on income bracket, we would be on the way to recovering a bunch of money we have dumped into those bureaucracies. Oh, when will we hear that conservatives have pushed a bill to cut salaries at the federal congressional level? To borrow a question from a bumper sticker, Just what are the conservatives conserving? I invite answers to this question; leave a comment.

This summer, when the state starts repairing roads, instead of lining up cops in their cars every 50 yards along the highway and paying them overtime to sleep or work on their reports, can we hire the unemployed, under employed, and strap some bubble gum machines on their vehicles instead?

How come prescription drugs here cost more than the same drugs in Canada and if we have a global economy why can't I get my stuff from Winnipeg and save some money? The local Rite Aide charges Blue Cross 99 dollars for my nose spray, 60 microsquirts; I wonder what the drug company charges Rite Aide. I have decided not to use it and will consume the last bottle and make it last longer by squirting only one nostril per day until the spray is gone. Then I will use Jim Beam.

I smoke cigars when I play golf, work in the yard, and sit on the porch ranting about how grossly incompetent our governments are. But I applaud the increase in tax on tobacco which should have been done 50 years ago. What we spend in subsidies to big tobacco and on health care makes no sense, and maybe down the road my grandkids will have something from the government that looks positive. Now if DE would start a consumption tax and put toll booths up during the summer, collecting a buck to get in and a buck to get out, maybe we can pay a few bills.

One day we will find out that the poultry business and the government have conspired to cover up the damages caused by all the chicken shit that is spread on fields and into our living rooms, schools, and hospitals every year at this time. Oh yeah, how come when I ride about the local counties, do I see all these open ended pole barns that were supposed to be repositories for chicken manure filled with machinery, not shit. Did we subsidize a whole bunch of garages instead of manure protectors?

Did we ever get the money back from all the cheating, lying, and stealing that went on with Haliburton and their mis-billings in Iraq? Who is watching over the defense contractors, especially the no bid ones?

That's it. Have a great weekend after writing your elected officials and demanding that they cut their salaries and all expenses that they can.